Henry Ford once said: If I’d asked my customers what they wanted, they’d have said a faster horse. A tricky meaning to Henry Ford’s quotation? Not really. But understanding the secrets of why customers buy your products and services is certainly not straightforward, but important nonetheless. You need to put these secrets of quality customer feedback to work to fully appreciate why customers make the decisions they do.

Check out our thoughts on customer focus.

Putting a priority on customer insight analysis? The information derived from customers is vital to continually improve your business.

Yet many businesses either don’t put a priority on collecting inputs from their customers or don’t know how.

The objective of this blog is to give you some tips to more effectively perform insight analysis.

How much time do you and your business dedicate to gathering customer insights? Not enough is the answer we hear most often. One way you can find useful insights is to examine research in social psychology.

Here are some useful thoughts from customer insight analysis we have found and use with our clients. They should provide a useful stimulus for defining tactics with your customers.

Customer feedback … good service trumps fast service

Recent studies show customers cite rude, incompetent, and rushed service as their top reasons to switch brands.

Customers who receive competent, knowledgeable, and all-encompassing services are most likely to remember their experiences and tell friends about them.

Companies must maintain a clear and constant focus on the factors that represent the true health and sustainable growth of the company: the bond between the company and the customer.

Faster operations should only be pursued when they will result in stronger customer bonds. Anything else is a mistake, and one with lasting consequences.

In short, companies must bear in mind that the “speed of service” contains two critical elements: speed and service. Create both and then listen for feedback.

Quality customer feedback … time more valuable than money

Most people see time spent as a better indicator of who they are versus how much money they spent.

New research from Stanford reveals that customers have more favorable feelings of brands they associate “time well spent” with.

Memories of good time were more powerful than memories of great savings.

So, there is a reason that lowest price companies promote having a good time (such as “It’s Miller Time) rather than their lowest prices.

Forget Suze Orman. Time, Not Money, Is Your Most Precious Resource. Spend It Wisely. Ask what your customers think.

Never overlook details

Details are never ‘unimportant’. Until you put all the pieces of the puzzle together, it is difficult to know the importance of details.

Observe what customers are doing for great insights.

Consider an example of Internet Privacy

Running a business today almost certainly means having a digital presence, and being connected to the Internet.

While the benefits of this transformation are many, the security issues are still a daily challenge, with many solutions in the marketplace to address them.

Now internet service providers can sell the browsing habits of their customers to advertisers. The move, which critics charge will fundamentally undermine consumer privacy in the US.

Yes, internet service providers (ISPs) such as Comcast, Verizon and AT&T are free to track all your browsing behavior and sell it to advertisers without consent.

ISPs have access to literally all of your browsing behavior – they act as a gateway for all of your web visits, clicks, searches, app downloads and video streams.

This represents a huge treasure trove of personal data, including health concerns, shopping habits, and porn preferences. ISPs want to use this data to deliver personalized advertising.

Check out this excellent VPN solution.

Money discussion makes customers more self-focused

When you prime people with money, they approach their social interactions in a fundamentally different way than they normally would,” said Nathan DeWall, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, who has conducted similar research on the psychology of money.

“Whereas when most people are presented with the possibility of having an interaction with another person, with anticipated rewards that accompany that, when you prime people with money, they just approach it in a socially disengaged and less rewarding manner. And this has profound consequences for their behavior.”

Research by psychologist Kathleen Vohs has shown that when people are primed with money issues, they become more self-focused. And less willing to assist others.

This fact can be used by businesses in selling luxury items. The subject of money should be avoided however with promotions associated with doing things for others (i.e. like Mother’s Day for example)

Customer feedback methods … look for insight connections

Find connections between seemingly unrelated observations. Keep iterating and building the puzzle of facts and their relationships.

Customer feedback examples … customers favor personalization

In a study from the Journal of Applied Social Psychology, researchers were able to increase the average tips that waiters received by over 23%, without significantly changing their service.

This was accomplished by having waiter’s follow-up with a second set of mints after they brought customers their check.

Waiters that brought mints but didn’t follow-up received an average of 7% less in their tips.

And from a different perspective, it pays to remember customers’ names and important information.

It turns out that people are more attentive and interested when they hear their names. When working on building relationships, use names when appropriate.

Few sounds are as pleasant as hearing our own names. And likewise, for example, nothing makes us feel less loved quite like a post-purchase email from ‘DO NOT REPLY’.

Connect

And then move closer. You learn most when you build close relationships with your customers.

And seek meaningful conversations with them.

Always dig deeper

Keep looking for ‘just one more question’. Each new fact that you discover often generates new information needs.

Think ahead and anticipate while you listen well.

Innovate through customer collaboration

MIT’s Eric Von Hippel conducted a study with the Institute of Management Sciences on the relationship of superstar customers and company innovation.

The result? Through a study of 1193 commercially successful innovations across 9 industries, Hippel discovered that 60% came from customers. Wow, that is something to think about.

When was the last time a customer helped you like that?

Immerse your perspective

Take multiple viewpoints using alternative roles. Try and eliminate the single role perspective at all costs and view things from as many angles as possible.

It will amaze you how much this helps.

Surprise with acts of kindness

One of the most memorable and talked about customer experiences is a surprise act of kindness.

When you use this, not only helps customers talk about you but also ‘to’ you with meaningful feedback.

Use your personal experience

Don’t be biased by this experience, however. Don’t let your values and views take charge of getting the true picture.

Loyalty programs can still be very effective

Consumer psychologists Dreze and Nunes were able to reveal just what makes a ‘sticky’ loyalty program, across all industries.

The researchers were able to show that customers are twice as likely to stay with loyalty programs if the programs if the programs appear to already have started.

Tasks that seem to be underway are more likely to be completed.

Customers prefer stories

Storytelling is most persuading so shows the research by Greer and Brock. Their research reveals that a well told story is one of the most persuasive forms of community.

They concluded that stories have the ability to take us to another place, permitting the story to be a marketing message without the marketing.

They are most helpful in creating conversation and feedback.

Validate and continually refine

The insights you have gained are never done.

Summary

Remember, this is your time to create remarkable experiences and valuable customer insights in order to create lasting customer relationships.

Lead with initiative … own the moment.

It’s up to you to keep improving your customer engagement and relationship-building performance and creativity.

Does your business put a priority on collecting customer insights and then putting them to use?

Do have any experiences to share with this community?

Do you have a lesson about making your customer insight collection better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?

Need some help in building better customer trust from your customer engagement? Creative ideas to help grow your customer relationships?

All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.

When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step.

Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.

Are you devoting enough energy to improving your continuous learning for yourself and your team?

Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find them on G+, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way.

Customer Feedback: 14 Tips on How to Gather Quality Insights

Check out our thoughts on customer focus.

Putting a priority on customer insight analysis? The information derived from customers is vital to continually improve your business.

Yet many businesses either don’t put a priority on collecting inputs from their customers or don’t know how.

The objective of this blog is to give you some tips to more effectively perform insight analysis.

How much time do you and your business dedicate to gathering customer insights? Not enough is the answer we hear most often. One way you can find useful insights is to examine research in social psychology.

Here are some useful thoughts from customer insight analysis we have found and use with our clients. They should provide a useful stimulus for defining tactics with your customers.

Related post: Improve Customer Engagement to Win Business

Customer feedback … good service trumps fast service

Recent studies show customers cite rude, incompetent, and rushed service as their top reasons to switch brands.

Customers who receive competent, knowledgeable, and all-encompassing services are most likely to remember their experiences and tell friends about them.

Companies must maintain a clear and constant focus on the factors that represent the true health and sustainable growth of the company: the bond between the company and the customer.

Faster operations should only be pursued when they will result in stronger customer bonds. Anything else is a mistake, and one with lasting consequences.

In short, companies must bear in mind that the “speed of service” contains two critical elements: speed and service. Create both and then listen for feedback.

Quality customer feedback … time more valuable than money

Most people see time spent as a better indicator of who they are versus how much money they spent.

New research from Stanford reveals that customers have more favorable feelings of brands they associate “time well spent” with.

Memories of good time were more powerful than memories of great savings.

So, there is a reason that lowest price companies promote having a good time (such as “It’s Miller Time) rather than their lowest prices.

Forget Suze Orman. Time, Not Money, Is Your Most Precious Resource. Spend It Wisely. Ask what your customers think.

Never overlook details

Details are never ‘unimportant’. Until you put all the pieces of the puzzle together, it is difficult to know the importance of details.

Observe what customers are doing for great insights.

Running a business today almost certainly means having a digital presence, and being connected to the Internet.

While the benefits of this transformation are many, the security issues are still a daily challenge, with many solutions in the marketplace to address them.

Now internet service providers can sell the browsing habits of their customers to advertisers. The move, which critics charge will fundamentally undermine consumer privacy in the US.

Yes, internet service providers (ISPs) such as Comcast, Verizon and AT&T are free to track all your browsing behavior and sell it to advertisers without consent.

ISPs have access to literally all of your browsing behavior – they act as a gateway for all of your web visits, clicks, searches, app downloads and video streams.

This represents a huge treasure trove of personal data, including health concerns, shopping habits, and porn preferences. ISPs want to use this data to deliver personalized advertising.

Check out this excellent VPN solution.

Money discussion makes customers more self-focused

When you prime people with money, they approach their social interactions in a fundamentally different way than they normally would,” said Nathan DeWall, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, who has conducted similar research on the psychology of money.

Research by psychologist Kathleen Vohs has shown that when people are primed with money issues, they become more self-focused. And less willing to assist others.

This fact can be used by businesses in selling luxury items. The subject of money should be avoided however with promotions associated with doing things for others (i.e. like Mother’s Day for example)

Customer feedback methods … look for insight connections

Find connections between seemingly unrelated observations. Keep iterating and building the puzzle of facts and their relationships.

Customer feedback examples … customers favor personalization

In a study from the Journal of Applied Social Psychology, researchers were able to increase the average tips that waiters received by over 23%, without significantly changing their service.

This was accomplished by having waiter’s follow-up with a second set of mints after they brought customers their check.

Waiters that brought mints but didn’t follow-up received an average of 7% less in their tips.

And from a different perspective, it pays to remember customers’ names and important information.

It turns out that people are more attentive and interested when they hear their names. When working on building relationships, use names when appropriate.

Few sounds are as pleasant as hearing our own names. And likewise, for example, nothing makes us feel less loved quite like a post-purchase email from ‘DO NOT REPLY’.

Connect

And then move closer. You learn most when you build close relationships with your customers.

And seek meaningful conversations with them.

Always dig deeper

Keep looking for ‘just one more question’. Each new fact that you discover often generates new information needs.

Think ahead and anticipate while you listen well.

Innovate through customer collaboration

MIT’s Eric Von Hippel conducted a study with the Institute of Management Sciences on the relationship of superstar customers and company innovation.

The result? Through a study of 1193 commercially successful innovations across 9 industries, Hippel discovered that 60% came from customers. Wow, that is something to think about.

When was the last time a customer helped you like that?

Immerse your perspective

Take multiple viewpoints using alternative roles. Try and eliminate the single role perspective at all costs and view things from as many angles as possible.

It will amaze you how much this helps.

Surprise with acts of kindness

One of the most memorable and talked about customer experiences is a surprise act of kindness.

When you use this, not only helps customers talk about you but also ‘to’ you with meaningful feedback.

Use your personal experience

Don’t be biased by this experience, however. Don’t let your values and views take charge of getting the true picture.

Loyalty programs can still be very effective

Consumer psychologists Dreze and Nunes were able to reveal just what makes a ‘sticky’ loyalty program, across all industries.

The researchers were able to show that customers are twice as likely to stay with loyalty programs if the programs if the programs appear to already have started.

Tasks that seem to be underway are more likely to be completed.

Customers prefer stories

Storytelling is most persuading so shows the research by Greer and Brock. Their research reveals that a well told story is one of the most persuasive forms of community.

They concluded that stories have the ability to take us to another place, permitting the story to be a marketing message without the marketing.

They are most helpful in creating conversation and feedback.

Validate and continually refine

The insights you have gained are never done.

Summary

Remember, this is your time to create remarkable experiences and valuable customer insights in order to create lasting customer relationships.

Lead with initiative … own the moment.

It’s up to you to keep improving your customer engagement and relationship-building performance and creativity.

Does your business put a priority on collecting customer insights and then putting them to use?

Do have any experiences to share with this community?

Do you have a lesson about making your customer insight collection better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?

Need some help in building better customer trust from your customer engagement? Creative ideas to help grow your customer relationships?

All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.